Maccabi Tel Aviv just completed their final training session prior to the Champions Cup Match Saturday at 20:50 against Kiryat Shemona, to be played at the Netanya Stadium and would like to add another trophy to the three which they won last season.

Barak Badash spoke to the club’s official website about the Champions Cup, receiving the President’s “Shield of Honor” award as well as the upcoming Champions League playoff against Basel on Wednesday.

“Kiryat Shemona has made great strides over the past few years and there are no easy games against them. The match on Saturday is for a title and it’s a title we want to win.”

The striker also mentioned the importance of receiving the “Shield of Honor” award: “The ‘Shield of Honor’ is no less important than any of the titles we won last year on the pitch. It’s great that the hard work that Maccabi Tel Aviv does to battle violence along with its supporters is recognized.”

Finally, Badash discussed the big test the club has this coming Wednesday: “It’s no question that the club has a big week ahead. We are representing the country and we want to do the best that we can to try and reach our goal of advancing to the Champions League group stages.”

44-years ago this week in Santiago, the capital city of Chile, there was boy that was born by the name of Rodrigo Alejandro Goldberg Mierzejewski or better known in this part of the world as just Rodrigo Goldberg

The Chilean striker who just celebrated his birthday was known as one of the most important foreign players that came to Israel and played for the Yellow-and-Blue. One of the best parts of Goldberg’s time with Maccabi was how he blossomed into the great striker that he was when he played in Israel.

One of the people close to Goldberg during his time with Maccabi was the then coach Nir Levin, who is now the Director of Maccabi’s Youth Department, who knows what kind of great story he was. “Rodrigo’s story is really special,” Levin described. “When I was coaching Maccabi, the CEO Shimon Kork said that there is a player in Chile by the name of Rodrigo Goldberg who has a contract with the club. He said that they would like to bring him to Israel to train and that I should try and find him a club.”

Goldberg had just returned to Israel after having a not so successful spell under coach Avram Grant but was now given a chance to revive his career. “We brought him to Israel and he began to practice and play with the reserve team. The reserve side had a very good team with ‘keeper Liran Strauber, Avi Strul, Mani Levy and even central defender Tal Ben Haim. Rodrigo played very well with the reserve team and his best match was the Derby game that was moved to Bloomfield Stadium where he scored the tying goal.”

From there, Goldberg’s story just got bigger and bigger and he became the player we remember to this day. “He joined the first team and was already in good shape. I gave him a chance in a league match that we ended up defeating Beitar in by a 7:0 score and Hapoel Haifa by 4:0 and he played great up front with Avi Nimni, Reuven Oved and Baruch Dego. He also was in the starting lineup for the Israel State Cup game where we won the title against Maccabi Petach Tikva in 2000/01. In the first half we had trouble but in the second half his first goal opened up the game as we went on to win 3:0 and lifted the cup.”

The Youth Department Director also shed some light on Goldberg’s personal side that allowed him to become a fan favorite very quickly: “Rodrigo was a very special person when he was with the team. Footballers have many different hobbies away from the game but when we were in a hotel prior to a match he would be sitting there with a thick English book, reading it even though it wasn't his mother tongue. He was an open person and very warm like many South Americans. It’s amazing to think back to the end of his career when he came back big time and was a huge help in winning the State Cup, a second State Cup and a League Championship.”

 

Prior to the Champions Cup match this Saturday night at 20:50 against Kiryat Shemona, Maccabi Tel Aviv received the "Shield of Honor" Award from Israel President, Reuven Rivlin

This morning Maccabi Tel Aviv received the "Shield of Honor" Award from Israel President Reuven Rivlin at the President's residence in Jerusalem along with the entire team, professional staff and club executives.

The ceremony was also attended by Minhelet HaLiga Chairman Yoram Bauman, Minhelet CEO Oren Hason, Israel Football Association CEO Rotem Kamer, Chariperson of the Violence Prevention Committee retired Judge Edna Bekenstein and Toto CEO Itshak Lary. Also present were representatives of all 14 teams in the Ligat Ha'Al.

Maccabi Tel Aviv has been fighting against racism in and around football stadiums throughout Israel and has worked in conjunction with the supporters as well as the "Achim LaSemel" organization and has participated in campaigns hilighting the fight against violence.

Martin Bain, the club's CEO accepted the "Shield of Honor" award from the Israel President Reuven Rivlin and said: "Firstly, I'm very happy to receive the "Shield of Honor" award and I'm happy that we are the first club to receive it. Fighting violence in sports is a big commitment for us and an award such as this was presented to us after hard work by the government, the leaders, the football clubs and also the supporters. I believe that Maccabi has made a lot of progress with these challenges as it's not an easy issue that is being dealt with across the world. I'm very proud of what Maccabi Tel Aviv does in the war against violence. We are working on this in a number of areas including fighting racism and violence in the stadiums with the Israeli public and also through international organizations such as UNICEF. We will continue to work hard and serve as an example and model for everyone. When the majority of supporters understand that everyone has to fight against violence and racism then others follow suit. Our supporters have been working hard at self-policing themselves in the stands and that needs to continue. In the name of Maccabi Tel Aviv and the club's supporters we want to thank you for the presentation of this award."

Maccabi Tel Aviv Sporting Director Jordi Cruyff spoke about how important the award is to the Yellow-and-Blue:

“Sometimes a trophy like this is more important than the ones won on the field as this is for social issues. I do think we should be proud of this trophy because we showed determination. This is not a final step but we should take this as an encouragement to try and keep improving and continue to eradicate all kinds of violent behavior because this is not what Maccabi stands for. We have to continue to work hard on this.

There’s a plan to work on this locally, nationally and internationally as UNICEF helps us a lot in this area to show that this is what we want to do. When players come to Maccabi Tel Aviv they know that they are not just valued for what they can do on the field, during training and scoring goals but we value their social behavior and social skills. We take every opportunity to send our players to hospitals and to places like Jaffa to show how different cultures can mix. Maccabi shows that we are a club that is multi-cultural and very tolerant with different cultures together and to eliminate all kinds of violent behavior against color, religion or anything else.

 

Maccabi Tel Aviv recently announced that the "Moses" restaurant chain joined the Maccabi family of sponsors and today the players came to the "Moses" branch in Cinema City Rishon LeZion for a celebratory meal. The players enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the private guest room of the restaurant

photos: shuka cohen

Eden Ben Basat, Nosa Igiebor, Avi Rikan, Eitan Tibi, Yuval Shpungin, Juan Pablo and Tal Ben Haim all enjoyed a healthy meal at Moses and veteran defender Ben Haim talked about the goals that are in front of the players: "We know that Basel is a good team and to advance in this competition you have to play these types of teams. We have a very important match Saturday night against Kiryat Shemona and we are concentrating on that as well. You can't win titles without hard work, the coaching staff knows that and they are getting us ready."

Ben Haim also mentioned the disappointing result from Saturday night's Toto Cup match: "Whatever the coach tells the players, stays between us. We were all upset about the result and we know in order to win the first title of the year we will have to play much better. When the defensive part of the game is discussed, we are talking about the whole team. There have been games where we have played well and others where we haven't. At every position in the lineup we have good players. We're just at the beginning of the season, at the start of August and with time we will look much better."

All of the players have a strong desire to play in the Champions League and Ben Haim talked about that: "When you get to just two matches between you and your dream as a player, we are definitely not going to be satisfied with where we are right now and we're not going to stop here. We want to go all the way. It won't be easy, but is it possible? Yes. There are a lot of strengths on this club and we've all seen this the last thee seasons and now's the time to take another step forward.

Director of Marketing for the "Moses" restaurant chain, Dikla Fogel Loewenstein spoke about why they have become partners with Maccabi: "Deciding to team up with Maccabi reflects the values of the "Moses" chain; Excellence, Leadership, Sportsmanship and Family. We're a hamburger restaurant chain that cares about your health and together with all of these values and Maccabi we make an excellent connection."

 

Maccabi Tel Aviv will face Kiryat Shemona this Saturday night, 20:50 at the Netanya Stadium for the Israel Champions Cup

Following the "Shield of Honor" award ceremony with Israel President Reuven Rivlin, a joint pre-match press conference took place with the participating team's coaches, Slavisa Jokanovic and Shalih Hasarma along with players Gal Alberman and Adrian Rotchet. 

Veteran midfielder Gal Alberman discussed the importance of the Champions Cup and the club's focus coming into the match: "We are beginning a new year and this is the first trophy of this coming season.  We are playing to win it. We are a club that participates in all of the football competitions, be it the Toto Cup or the Israel State Cup, and the Champions Cup is another title that we want to win. Even though we lost the last match in the Toto Cup we put that game aside and we have another game now. Just as we won in Plzen we move onto the next game."

Maccabi Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic also spoke about the first title of the new year and the importance of the club's supporters: "I am still not sure who will start on Saturday and we are preparing for the match because want to lift some silverware. There will be many supporters at the stadium and we will do everything to win the match.

It's always important to focus on the present and that's the Champions Cup game. We have to concentrate on the pitch and perform for our supporters. They want us to win the title and we have to do just that."

New players Eli Dasa and Shlomi Azulay just participated in their first practice with Maccabi and coach Jokanovic talked about their importance to the club: "We have always been thinking of both of these two players and they will be important for us. They have a bright future, they are at the right age and we are sure they can be an important part of the club going forward."

Since Maccabi Tel Aviv's big 2:0 win over Viktoria Plzen last week, all everyone has been thinking about is the Champions League playoff match against Basel. But not only did coach Slavisa Jokanovic's team have a rough test on the Czech Republic but so did Maccabi's Official Beer, MTA BEER who had to stand toe-to-toe with the local Pilsner Beer of Plzen. How did it go? Watch to find out
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJs-lJ-kwnU

For mobile, Click here

Have you always dreamed about exchanging your jersey with one of the players at the end of a match? We’re going to fulfill your dream. How? Read below

The final whistle blows. Then right after the match one of the greatest traditions in football happens: Exchanging jerseys. Do you want to be part of it? This is how it works. 

Anyone who purchases an Official 2015/16 Match Jersey at one of the Official Team Stores or through the online shop between August 18th and August 20th can be a part of a drawing to be one of the 11 fans who will have the opportunity to exchange their jerseys with the players at the end of the first league home game on Saturday August 22nd against Bnei Sakhnin.

Six fans will be randomly chosen from among those who purchase an Official 2015/16 Match Jersey and another ten will be selected to join Didi Harari on his program where five will win the chance to be able to choose which player they would like to exchange jerseys with.

Why are you waiting? Remember you’re the stars of the show.

To purchase and official 2015/16 match jersey, CLICK HERE

*Official rules & regulations apply to this contest

 

Three Maccabi Tel Aviv players, Omri Ben Harush, Nikola Mitrovic and Dor Peretz came to the Azrieli Shopping Center and visited the "Pop Up Shop" on the second floor of the mall. The three enjoyed meeting and greeting the hundreds of fans that came to take pictures with their heroes, get autographs and share a few words while purchasing official Maccabi Tel Aviv merchandise.

Omri Ben Harush couldn't get over all of the love he received from the many supporters that came to take a picture with him and get his autograph: "What a great get together. It's terrific to see the Maccabi fans who just love the club and heaped praise onto us. We will always cherish their love and we don't take it for granted. I was really shocked to see so many supporters here, it was so much fun to be here with them."

Ben Harush who came directly from practice to the "Pop Up Shop" with Nikola Mitrovic and Dor Peretz also talked about the team's two new recruits who had their first training session this morning: "I'm really happy that Eli Dasa and Shlomi Azulay joined the club. They are excellent players and every new player that joins the team brings more drive and motivation to fight for a spot in the starting XI."

Between the pictures and autographs the players also met with Nivea CEO Ronen Shamir who was presented with a jersey with his name on it. Afterwards the threesome went to a special Nivea stand at the Super Pharm branch in the shopping center where they received a variety of gifts.

 

 

Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club have begun ticket sales for the away match at Basel, Switzerland. All the details are below

 

The ticket sales for the UEFA Champions League playoff away match in Basel has begun. The match will be the first of the two-legged tie and will take place at Saint Jakob Park on Wednesday August 19th at 20:45, Swiss Time. The ticket sales are open to the general public with a passport copy and flight ticket for each match ticket purchased.

IMPORTANT! When picking up the tickets you will need to present a passport copy and flight ticket for each match ticket purchased.

Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters will be sitting in the following sections:

Category 1 section: A5

Supporter sections: B1-B2

Ticket prices via telephone/Internet

Category 1: 335₪

Supporter section: 120₪

Ticket prices at the Leaan Ticket Office, 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv

Category 1: 330₪

Supporter section: 115₪

Hours of operation:

Leaan Ticket Office, 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv – Sunday-Thursday 09:00-19:00, Friday 09:00-13:00